ENVIRONMENT: New NGO Forum to Push for Concrete Action//CORRECTED REPEAT

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 6 1997 (IPS) - “From the Agenda to Action” is the motto of the environmental conference planned for Mar. 13 to 19, which will be attended by some 300 representatives of worldwide Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

The Earth Council, an NGO created to follow up the resolutions of the 1992 Earth Summit, called the “Rio plus five” forum to evaluate the practical outcome of the conventions and agreements signed by more than 100 heads of State and government here five years ago.

The meeting must also approve a document of recommendations to be taken to the United Nations, whose Commission for Sustainable Development and General Assembly will meet in April and June respectively to assess the outcome of the 1992 Summit.

A draft of the Earth Letter, containing the general principles of sustainability, and a proposal for a future global convention on safe environmental development are other aims of “Rio plus five,” along with thematic and national reports on the advances made and the shortfalls of the last five years.

Manuals will also be launched to direct action aiming for sustainable development, aimed at local authorities, international agencies, NGOs and other agents, Diomar Silveira, the Earth Council representative accompanying the forum organisation told IPS.

“It will be a work meeting,” which has been in the planning stages since 1996, said Da Silveira, distinguishing it from spectacular mass demonstrations, like the 1992 Global Forum.

The Earth Council, created in September 1992, and based in Costa Rica, invited research institutes, NGOs and business organisations to offer evaluations, proposals and recommendations aiming to bring the international agreements into practice.

Environment related economy, science and technology, governability, social development, values and principles of the environmental question and communication are the issues of the reports, along with the national balances.

The participants will number between 500 and 550, according to Da Silveira’s estimations. For the NGO representatives and business leaders will be accompanied by the National Councils for Sustainable Development, planned in the agenda approved in 1992 and already in place in 80 countries.

Each Council must send two members, one governmental and another from the civil society, whose delegates are members of the organism.

The meeting will also be attended by representatives of women’s, indigenous and youth networks, local authorities nad members of parliment. Philanthropic foundations and leaders of United Nations agencies involved in environmental issues will make up the rest of the guest list.

Each government was invited to present a selection of their best experiences in sustainable development. Brazil will launch a parallel event, from Monday to Friday, and a CD-Rom reporting on 100 exemplary projects.

Brazil’s President Fernando Cardoso is to participate as “honorary panelist,” in the debate on “Global governability and sustainable development” tabled for the 18, along with president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, and Norway’s former prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Each day of the forum will be dedicated to a basic issue, including research on and the evaluation of the 1992 Summit, cooperation and alliances, the different sectoral points of view on sustainability and future actions.

Director general of the World Trade Organisation, Renato Ruggieri, former Soviet president Mijail Gorbachov and high- ranking officials within the UN, like the Development Programme administrator James Speth and Environment director Elizabeth Dowdeswell are also amongst the panelists.

The forum will be an opportunity to construct “strategies to promote greater participation of sectors of the civil society in the struggle for sustainable development, especially on a local level,” said Maurice Strong, general secretary of the 1992 Summit and president of the Earth Council.